Get started with Mobile Services

This tutorial shows you how to add a cloud-based backend service to an iOS app using Azure Mobile Services.

In this tutorial, you will create both a new mobile service and a simple To do list app that stores app data in the new mobile service. The mobile service that you will create uses JavaScript for server-side business logic. To create a mobile service with server-side business logic in .NET, see the .NET backend version of this topic.

Create a new mobile service

Log into the Management Portal. At the bottom of the navigation pane, click +NEW. Expand Compute and Mobile Service, then click Create.

This displays the Create a Mobile Service dialog.

In the Create a Mobile Service dialog, select Create a free 20 MB SQL Database, select JavaScript runtime, then type a subdomain name for the new mobile service in the URL textbox. Click the right arrow button to go to the next page.

This displays the Specify database settings page. >[AZURE.NOTE]As part of this tutorial, you create a new SQL Database instance and server. You can reuse this new database and administer it as you would any other SQL Database instance. If you already have a database in the same region as the new mobile service, you can instead choose Use existing Database and then select that database. The use of a database in a different region is not recommended because of additional bandwidth costs and higher latencies.

In Name, type the name of the new database, then type Login name, which is the administrator login name for the new SQL Database server, type and confirm the password, and click the check button to complete the process.

You have now created a new mobile service that can be used by your mobile apps.

Create a new iOS app

You can follow an easy Quick Start in the Management Portal to create a new app connected to your mobile service:

In the Management Portal, click Mobile Services, and then click the mobile service that you just created.

In the Quick Start tab, click iOS under Choose a platform and expand Create a new iOS app. This displays the steps to create an iOS app connected to your mobile service.

Click Create TodoItem table to create a table to store app data.

Under Download and run your app, click Download. This downloads the project for the sample To do list application that is connected to your mobile service, along with the Mobile Services iOS SDK. Save the compressed project file to your local computer, and make a note of where you saved it.

Run your new iOS app

The final stage of this tutorial is to build and run your new app.

Browse to the location where you saved the compressed project files, expand the files on your computer, and open the project file using Xcode.

Press the Run button to build the project and start the app in the iPhone emulator.

In the app, type meaningful text, such as Complete the tutorial and then click the plus (+) icon.

This sends a POST request to the new mobile service hosted in Azure. Data from the request is inserted into the TodoItem table. Items stored in the table are returned by the mobile service, and the data is displayed in the list.

Back in the Management Portal, click the DATA tab and then click the TodoItem table. This lets you browse the data inserted by the app into the table.